Dr. Craig L. Oliver Sr.
The pastor of the church where recently fired Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran is a member sent a pointed message Sunday to the man who ousted the chief, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
“Just because you sign my paycheck,” said Dr. Craig L. Oliver Sr., senior pastor at Elizabeth Baptist Church, “doesn’t mean you can control what I think or say.”
The pastor’s comments underscored a controversy that has bedeviled Reed for weeks. Cochran, a deacon at the church, self-published “Who Told You You Are Naked?’” a 2013 book that some construe as critical of gays. The mayor suspended Cochran for a month while the city investigated those claims. Reed fired him last week.
Cochran was not axed for expressing his views, Reed said, but for not obeying rules, including not getting clearance to write the book and failing to remain quiet while the city investigated complaints about it. Cochran, the mayor added, may have opened the city to potential discrimination litigation.
“His religious (beliefs) are not the basis of the problem,” Reed said when he announced the firing. “His judgment is the basis of the problem.”
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SOURCE: WSB Radio
